Canine anal gland infection treatment

Join Now. You caught your dog doing the booty scoot on your favorite rug and now you're wondering why they do it and how you can get it to stop. Whether that or excessive licking of your pet's hind region is what brought you here, it's likely that your dog's anal glands need attention. While that's probably the last part of your dog's anatomy you'd like to pay attention to, the fact is that anal gland problems in dogs are fairly common and often the cause of dog scooting problems. Your dog's hind end includes two small sacs located on the inside of their rectum, one on each side within the muscular wall, says The Spruce.

You probably are because swollen, infected anal glands are pretty common in dogs. Dogs have a pair of small glands on either side of the anus, just under the tail. These glands also called sacs contain a smelly, oily fluid that smells a lot like skunk. Normally, when your dog poops, some of the liquid gets squeezed out of the glands as a result of pressure in the colon. This is called impaction. Many vets will recommend a high fiber diet to attempt to firm up the soft stools that commercial dog foods can create … but a raw diet that includes bone content will do it much more effectively. This firm stool pushes against the anal glands when your dog poops, causing the glands to empty.

It is believed that this smelly substance helps a dog mark their territory. If an anal gland becomes blocked, an infection or abscess may develop. This can be extremely painful and needs treatment by a vet. They should empty themselves when your dog goes to the toilet. Anal gland infections are nearly always a result of leaving blocked anal glands without treatment.

How often should anal sacs be emptied and what are some of the misconceptions about the best antibiotics to use for infection? What are anal sacs and why do they fill up? Anal sacs, sometimes mistakenly referred to as anal glands, are two small structures located between the internal and external sphincter muscles. Each sac is lined with both sebaceous and apocrine glands whose combined secretions produce a semi-oil foul smelling brown liquid. As the anal sphincter muscles expand, as defaecation occurs, pressure on the sacs leads to the expulsion of their contents over the faeces.